Shaker - Update #6, Combat

Combat in the world of Antera is full of swords and sorcery! Outside of combat, you have free movement about the world of Antera, but once you have an encounter with the not-so-friendly residents of this medieval world, it’s old-school, turn-based combat.Before the Encounter
Your party has six characters in total (your four characters and two local NPC recruits). Before combat, you are free to arrange your party as you wish in front and back ranks. The further back your characters are, the safer they will be. The closer they are to the action, the more brute-force damage they can do. Back-rank characters must have spells, long-range attacks or weapons, or special skills. All weapons and spells have specific ranges.Entering Combat
Combat occurs when you near an enemy, and you enter combat mode. Before you, you see the creatures in the world, and combat proceeds in turn-based rounds. In traditional RPG fashion, you choose each character’s action. The NPCs are, at first, autonomous, but you can choose their actions once they fully trust you. Once everyone determines their course, the game determines who goes first based on everyone’s quickness (plus or minus any modifiers). Combat then plays out in front of you with each party member or enemy taking turns in order of their Initiative. Combat ends when you defeat the enemy or they run away, knowing what’s good for them.Combat Rounds
During combat, your characters have several options to choose from depending on their available weapon, profession and location in the party. You may choose from: Attack using your current weapon, select a Spell/Special using your profession’s unique powers, or use an Item. You can also get the hell out of dodge or skip your turn.
Combat continues round after round until there’s a victor. Hopefully, you’re the one looking down on the bodies of your foes! GOOD OLD GAMES

Regardless of how you feel about the 'polishedness' of Loot Drop's presentation, general comparisons to Project Eternity and their ability to make all their money in five days should be taken w a grain of salt.

Project Eternity has a lot more immediate name recognition for their designers than Loot Drop, considering Obsidian has already been releasing PC rpgs recently, whereas Brenda B and Tom Hall haven't released any front-and-center PC games for a while.

just putting it out there
-g

Last edited by gumbomasta; October 11th, 2012 at 15:20.
Reason: clarification

They seemed to have jumped to 200K quickly and then slowed dramatically. I wonder if they 'fatally' damaged their kickstarter by have such a weak launch (i.e. info-poor, uninspired - "old School RPG"…seriously? - Sure, they're not Obsidian, but what I saw on the first 1/2 days was simply 'meh' as the young un's say these days).

Originally Posted by Asdraguuhl
I have discovered this Space Sim game yesterday and it does seem great but I haven't had time yet to read all the details. But is it an on-line game only or is there a single player campaign as well?

There is a single player campaign (centred around Squadron 42). I'm only backing it because of that. And I'm not sure if it's really 100% MMO for the multiplier, seems more like a mode to host private servers with limited number of players with RSI having their own public ones. Also, it support co-op multiplayer.

Originally Posted by azarhal
There is a single player campaign (centred around Squadron 42). I'm only backing it because of that. And I'm not sure if it's really 100% MMO for the multiplier, seems more like a mode to host private servers with limited number of players with RSI having their own public ones. Also, it support co-op multiplayer.

That is good to know. Yesterday, wen I was reading about it I assumed it was single player but after a quick peek at your link's site I only saw references to on-line aspects hence my confusion.

Anyway, I enjoyed Space Sims like Wing Commander very much so seeing this project is good news and a nice surprise.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Now that is fucking cool. Starting to sound like a definite buy for me.

Yeah I'm planning on pledging a bit this week. I do wish they had more of these details up at launch though - they may have hamstrung themselves with their slow kickstarter start. Of course they might be able to build to an impressive finish more along the lines of "Bones" if they're able to get good press coverage and put out more art and interview info.